OmniSky Corporation today announced that it is the first company to license the Handspring Blazer browser and proxy server to enhance the OmniSky user experience on Palm OS-based handhelds. With the adoption of the Blazer technology, OmniSky will provide web browsing that is significantly faster than other wireless services for the Palm OS - rendering the first screen of virtually any web site in less than five seconds.

To achieve faster browsing, Blazer implements incremental rendering of text and graphics, which allows the user to immediately begin viewing content while the rest of the website is downloading. For enhanced web surfing, Blazer supports web-content formats such as HTML, WAP, WML, and XHTML, and image formats such as GIF and JPEG. The Blazer technology also enables
OmniSky to implement a range of key Internet features, including support for frames, cookies (used by Internet sites for personalization) and SSL security.

"OmniSky continues to work closely with Handspring to ensure a superior wireless-Internet user experience for Handspring owners," said Kristine Stebbins, OmniSky's vice-president of marketing. "With this licensing agreement, we'll be able to implement a wide range of features that will significantly enhance OmniSky's already rich wireless Internet browsing
experience."

"We're delighted that OmniSky has selected the Handspring Blazer browser technology for implementation on their popular handheld service," said Ed Colligan, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Handspring, Inc. "The integration of the Blazer browser with OmniSky's own technology should provide users of Handspring Visor handhelds with the best-available browsing experience on a wireless handheld."

As part of the agreement, Handspring has obtained a non-exclusive license to use has licensed OmniSky's proprietary OneTap XML-based technology. OneTap enables efficient two-way data transfer between PIM (personal information management) applications and the wireless Internet. OneTap allows handheld users to, for example, request and save maps and directions from optimized Web sites directly into their address book, date book or memo pad with a single tap. Users also can automatically fill Web-based forms with existing information such as addresses, dates and notes, directly from their handheld.

The first licensee of Handspring's Blazer browser, OmniSky plans to incorporate this industry-leading technology into the next software release of the OmniSky wireless service. Additionally, the integration of the new browser will allow OmniSky to provide color support for the Handspring Visor Prism handheld.